Shutdown wouldn’t affect BIA schools, police

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs says a government shutdown would not affect its police services or the schools it administers on reservations.

A little less than half of the bureau’s 8,700 employees would be furloughed, but workers would be on hand to keep jails open and patrol reservations.

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling says bureau-operated elementary, middle and high schools are on a different funding cycle and would also remain open. School buses would continue their normal routes.

If a shutdown lasted longer than seven days, two BIA colleges — Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, N.M., and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. — would be forced to close and send their roughly 2,000 students home.

A government shutdown also would require the BIA to stop providing funding for welfare assistance and cease any road maintenance activities.